Dear Zotter customers, friends, fans and chocolate lovers,
this is our 3rd update.
Progress! We got word today that our property manager has done the most important repairs inside and put the inner ceiling in place and replaced the A/C vents. We are super happy about this. Especially when you know about the overall devastation in our area, you never know when you will be next to get something done. Thousands others could be waiting and getting those repairs so quickly is like a miracle. The roof is temporarily patched and we will be able to patch the holes in the overhead roll door in the back to prevent heat coming in. This door needs to be ordered and replaced as it got heavily beaten by the storm and is bent inside.
There is no power yet, but with the incredible process that’s been done by FPL and LCEC, we have hopes! Our corner seems to be a more complicated part to be restored. Neighboring blocks do have power already. As soon as power is back and we can see the warehouse can be cooled down to a safe temperature for chocolate, we’ll requesting the chocolate shipment waiting for us in Austria. It won’t be the whole assortment, at this time, but still a lot that will help us! It will be all the new bars plus our holiday bars!
We’ve been 12 days without any sales now. Sales are the lifeline of our business, as this time and the upcoming weeks where we can’t be operational is hurting us big times. It’s getting more with every single day, especially as October was our best month last year and November came right after. These upcoming days and weeks are the most important ones and currently we sit on a pile of 17000 spoiled chocolate bars. It was heartbreaking today, to finally taking them out of stock in our system. We will wait a few days and hope that we get power back soon. If that’s the case, we might eventually be able to start over in about 2 weeks. That’s the current estimate. Alternatively, we are also currently on the lookout for a different location that could work as a temporary warehouse to process orders. We are working with our realtor, and got also tips from the community for possible options. Warehouses might be available, but the challenging part is to find something with a powerful, and reliable Air-conditioning system.
All your help is greatly appreciated to get us through these weeks of uncertainty. But we want to let you know, that the recent progress gives us hope after this catastrophic storm. If you can and want to financially support us, this is the link to our GoFundMe page
